This invention relates to packaging of smoking articles, and to machines for that packaging. For convenience, the smoking articles (cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, for example) will be referred to as cigarettes.
It is conventional for cigarette packs, whether soft or rigid, to be overwrapped with a transparent layer of cellophane or similar material. Though this has some protective properties it does not seriously prolong shelf life, especially in adverse conditions such as those of very high or very low humidity. To gain access to the pack the user tears open and discards the transparent layer. EP-A-395249 however shows a transparent overwrap which is not entirely discarded.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,729, FIGS. 11 and 12, a cuboid cigarette soft pack has a flap in the top face which on lifting tears away part of an overwrap layer. The flap may have permanently tacky adhesive so that it can be flattened down again onto the top face and reclose, to a certain extent, the hole it made in the barrier layer. Leak paths still exist, and it is not clear how the opening gives access to the contents of the pack.
We have previously proposed, in copending WO-A-9822367 to provide a resealable barrier enclosure for a pack.
The present invention provides a packet of smoking articles comprising a rigid cuboid pack having a top face, a bottom face, two side faces and major front and back faces, a charge of smoking articles contained in said rigid pack and a layer of barrier material overwrapping said pack to form a sealed enclosure around said pack, wherein the barrier layer includes a line of weakening defining a flap and an access aperture, said enclosure includes a label applied on said flap, said label comprising a permanently tacky portion, which portion, when said label is in an aperture closure position, surrounds said access aperture to allow resealing of said aperture upon said label being brought to said closure position thereof, and said rigid pack includes either a potential access aperture, being a flap defined by a line of weakening in the material of the pack, or an actual access aperture, being a portion missing from the material of said pack, said potential or actual aperture extending from the top face into one of said major faces of said rigid pack and being generally in registration with said flap of said barrier layer.
The present invention further provides a machine for making a packet as defined above, which machine includes a feed operable to supply a web of barrier material, a cutting station operable to form a line of weakening defining a flap and an access aperture in said web, an application station operable to apply a label, comprising a permanently tacky portion, over said flap in such a matter that when said label is in an aperture closure position said tacky portion of said label surrounds said access aperture, means operable to present a length of the label-bearing web as a wall to the top face of a rigid pack containing a charge of smoking articles, drive means operable to transfer said rigid pack transverse to said wall and being further operable to progress said rigid pack through the location of said wall of barrier material, a knife cutter operable to cut said web to length immediately after said web has been impacted by said pack, said rigid pack including either an actual access aperture, being a portion missing from the material of the pack, or a potential access aperture, being a flap defined by a line of weakening in the material of the pack, which actual or potential access aperture is generally in registration with the flap of said barrier layer, and heaters operable to form seals in said web of barrier material around said pack to form an enclosure.
A related machine is seen in our co-pending European Application 98306328.0 (EPA-0 895 930) where however what is overwrapped is a charge of smoking articles in an incomplete frame.
The barrier material layer may be, for example, a metallised plastic or a plastic/metal laminate material.
The rigid pack of the present invention may be similar, for example, to the flip-top or shell and slide type packs.
The packet of the present invention may be inserted into an outer, which outer may be a rigid flip-top pack.
In this way an efficient, proper, access opening is available but is effectively hermetically resealable.